Hip flexor stretches have been prescribed to all kinds of people, from desk workers to athletes. In fact, in many cases hip flexor stretching is actually over-prescribed and wrongfully prescribed
Since the body is all connected via myofascial chains (or Anatomy Trains) rather than just focusing on a static “hip flexor stretch,” Fascial Stretching allows a large portion of the chain to be stretched which promotes the end goal or freeing up mobility through the tissue.
Fascial stretching is VERY different from stretching yourself. For sake of brevity, one of the main benefits of Fascial Stretch Therapy is the feedback loop that allows stretching to actually be BENEFICIAL. The feedback loop I am referring to is to do with your nervous system AKA your brain and body signals. One of the main tenets of Fascial Stretch Therapy is ‘stretching with the breath.‘ Breathing is what helps the clients’ nerves to completely relax and hence the stretch receptors are less prone to tensing up. If the stretch receptors send the “tense up” message, a good therapist is instantly able to feel this and cue the client appropriately to increase max benefits of the stretch. (This happens a a lot, so we are used to communicating with the client during the session).
There are many relevant points when considering stretching of the Deep Front Line (where the Hip Flexor is located).
2 main ones we find in our practice is:
- that prolonged shortening of the fascia in the Deep Front Line pulls our chest and shoulders down – contributing to neck and shoulder tension. Which sometimes leaves people with this constant incurable neck and shoulder tension
- The movement of our Diaphragm becomes restricted. When the breathing muscle doesn’t move… we simply cannot breath like we’re supposed to. Rather we end up breathing from our chest.
We’ll leave it as that for now, here is a small clip of a Deep Front Line Stretch
Check out the other relevant posts:
Proper Breathing
Stretches for Low Back Pain
Assisted Full Body Stretch
Active Kinetix Fitness & Rehabilitation
Kinesiologists, Active Rehab, Personal Training, Fascial Stretch Therapy
Burnaby, Vancouver, Canada